Alright, so I've worked at a Borders store here in Tulsa for a little over and year and a half and I'll come right out and say it, the main reason I applied was the discount. I had flitted my life away in a retail job before(I'm a proud survivor of two and a half years at Old Navy thank you very much!) and after my cushy stint as a Resident Advisor at the freshman dorm resident hall at my college (Trust me, after two years of having psycho moms yelling at you for over charging her twenty cents for her baby socks, having a drunk frat bro in training lob a DVD of Jenna Jamison's finest work from the second floor landing during the Beer Olympics is nothing...true story) I wasn't too warm to the idea of trotting back into retail hell.

But it was books so it wasn't like I didn't spend all my time there anyway. Unfortunately I quickly discovered that those same moms who were yelling about their baby socks yelled about the coupon they left at home that you can't let her use anyway because it's against company policy and could get you fired. However, amongst the bowing and scraping, and the spit up on your favorite jeans from the genius mother who let her five year old drink an entire caramel mocha by herself, there come these shining gem moments. Today just so happened to have one of them.

So I was putting away some reshelves and trying not to laugh at the 80+ year old couple who were looking at Karma Sutra books, and you know, worrying that grandma there could break a hip or dislocate something vital if they were seriously thinking of trying page 55 of the Position of the Day book, when I happened to stumble upon Drink, Play, F@#k by Andrew Gottlieb.

Now I'm not going to lie. The title is what did it. As a cronic F-bomb dropper I just knew that this was something I needed to check out. Plus the inner annoyed employee (haha, inner...right...) in me was interested in anything parodying Eat, Love, Pray which we were practically slammed with about a year ago when it was featured on Oprah. And I was not disappointed in the least. I laughed out loud-scaring the guy nosing around the register, waiting for the right childless moment to come up and buy his Playboy. And the smile I gave when he was walking away, waving off my "Have a nice evening, sir!!!" was totally real. I couldn't put it down. So while I'm supposed to be finishing off Grotesque, and you know, studying for my Communications test tomorrow, I'm busy laughing along with Mr. Sullivan in his adventures in Ireland.

Well done, sir and I look forward to reading about Vegas next!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHkWv1vHtHk

Funny video I found online.

I recently decided to grow my hair out naturally because I'm going to Japan where finding African American hair care will be like trying to pull fresh catnip from my cat Stinky's clutches. AKA impossible. Well, in my request for non-chemically processed hair, I did my hair in crazy crimpy waves that got many compliments. However, I'm afraid that said fun hair style may be the reason behind a recent visitor I think we've gotten at casa de la home because I'm pretty sure that my friend Hailey's ghost followed me home from Cosmo's last night. No really! We were sitting there, sipping after work cosmopolitans all sophisticated like and we naturally started talking about ghosts and the fact that one is stalking her. I intelligently remarked that she could keep said ghost to herself.

Well I got home last night and locked the door to the garage but when my mom woke up this morning, she said that not only was it unlocked but wide open. AND that she had heard thumping last night, like metal on metal thumping and one of the things that Hailey said she heard with her ghost was thumping and heavy footsteps on the roof.
I'm hoping that if this is the case and Mr. Ghosty-Mc-Ghostalot is hanging around here that he's a hottie like Hector "Jesse" de Silva a la The Mediator, my favorite of Meg Cabot's series. We can only hope. I'll be wearing a cross when I go to sleep tonight just in case.

You know, because ghosts are like vampires right?
Casey

P.S. Why did it get so cold in here all of a sudden?
P.P.S. I just found this on Meg Cabot's website while thinking about Jesse and decided to post it. It'll make you say aww....And then go buy the series because it's one of my favs!

Haha,
So, I love irony, a lot. It tackles my fancy so I was foaming at the mouth when this happened. I'm not sure if anything other than divine intervention (and a call to a local pimp) could have set this up. As I stated in a previous post, I am currently reading Grotesque by Nastuo Kirino-a mystery novel about a girl whose sister is murdered and perhaps how she tracks down the murderer? (I'm only about 200 pages in so I'm not quite sure on that yet...)But anyways, the sister who was murdered was a prostitute and earlier today I had read this long section of the book about the girl and how beautiful she thought she was (she's not a vain or narcissistic character at all as I'm sure you can tell!) and how being a bigger person you couldn't be a prostitute. Well, I had an experience on my V-tines day that might just prove her wrong.

The day started off sluggish-minus the cool trail-so I wasn't expecting much. Went to a play with my best friend (Ibsen's A Doll's House which I think all women-and especially Rihanna right now-should see because if a mother living in the 19th century can walk out on her manipulative, jerk-off of a husband, there's no reason for you to stick with that abusive, judgmental, WoW playing, mooching lump sitting on the end of your couch, eating all your mac-n-cheese ya know what I mean?) and a quick trip to this trend 50's-ish diner called The Brook in the hipster side of town. When my friends and I decided to take a trip to VI-AKA Village Inn which is kinda like Denny's except for in existence.

Now, we've taken our fair share of late night-til-morning trips to VI. Not a weird, or ironic-thing but this time we were shortly joined by who had to be a prostitute. And let me tell you she was NO Julia Roberts.

At least I never saw Vivian pushing 250 in a skin tight dress with diamonds holes cut out in the stomach and absolutely NO VLP or VBL (yes, the girls were NOT contained, which I felt was illegal enough as it is, no offense to the non-bra wearing people in the world. My older sister is one of you. I just feel that there are some people who can get away with letting the girls go free and some of us who cause traffic accidents when they do...)

And then her pimps showed up in all their Sean Jean, spree wheels, and Jose Quervo glory! My friends and I-ever the sleuth's-watched the deal go down. And there was actual face suckage! It was like the skankiest episode of the Discovery Channel ever!

But alas, the deal transpired and presumably one of the guys went home with a happier ending than finishing his Moon Over My Hammy-you know if it was Denny's, which it wasn't because Denny's isn't in existence anymore, at least not here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But it just made me think of Grotesque. I'm not sure how things are in Japan (In Korea, you look for the prostitutes in the places with the spinning barber poles) but maybe I can let you know in a few years if ladies of the night there don't get any business if they're over weight.

Considering the new law put in place where Japanese employees get fined for having a waist that's more than 35 inches, I suppose that's not surprising. But as with most things, in America we're more forgiving because this lady didn't look like she'd missed any meals from lack of nourishment.

I'm off to buy bedspreads with my mom now! Not to be used in a prostitution ring unless this whole writing thing falls through,
Much love,
Casey

P.S. Maybe I'll looked at silk sheets just in case...

I send a great bit candy gram to everyone. As I'm sure everyone is aware, today is officially the day of love. Greeting card and chocolate companies everywhere are rejoicing. Boyfriends are buying expensive gifts in hopes of getting out of the dog house. People like me are looking for every shred of black clothing in their closets to boycott the holiday. I decided that I am going to list the things that I love in honor of this most delicious of days.

-chasing my cat around the house then laughing at her TV addiction
-walking around barefoot at work
-listening to k-pop and trying to pick out words I recognize
-the smell of new books
-laughing
-Rain (Bi)-the Korean star
-my new cell phone
-the music trivia game on my iPod
-striking a chord just right on my guitar
-eating the Chuck Norris of all licorice sticks-Red Vines
-using the Chuck Norris of all licorice sticks as a straw to drink cherry Coke
-not catching 5 o'clock traffic on 81st street between Mingo and Memorial
-checking Perezhilton.com more times a day than should be legally allowed
-geeking out and playing drinking games with my friends on Saturday nights
-writing The End at the end of a manuscript
-meaning The End after editing it until your brain starts to numb
-talking to other writers
-watching Transformers with my mom while she points out and names every single Decepticon
-waking up my cat when she's trying to sleep

We weren't too busy today but I did get a book to read for the holiday. It's called Be With You and it's a Japanese novel that was translated. I've got to finish reading Grotesque but hopefully I'll get a review of both of them up soon!

I hope that everyone has a joyous Valentine's Day. Be Safe!
Casey

I just discovered an illustrator who tickles my inner anime loving fancy. Designer Luke Feldman does some truly amazing things. If I ever get published I'd love to have him design my book cover or website. I'm thinking about buying a couple of his prints from Shanalogic. You should definitely check out his stuff!

So I found out my celebrity twin, singer Rihanna, was physically abused by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, proving that domestic abuse DOES happen in young couples. SO NOT COOL CHRIS BROWN! You've officially lost me as a fan. Call me old fashioned but I believe that a gentleman should NEVER hit a lady! I wish Rihanna the best and send my prayers to her and her family and I hope she dumps his sorry butt.
Casey

My legs are hurting from my ballet class (or, as as I've come to know it, Ball-oww class)and everyone knows that the best cure for sore legs is reading (IcyHot also doesn't hurt...) So I grabbed a book to procrastinate from doing homework contribute to the weakening economy and settled down with some Red Vines and sweet tea for a nice evening of yummy YA Scifi classical literature. The pick for today was Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games. I was a little skeptical at first because in reading the back of the book, all kinds of alarms went off in my head that this was a rip off of Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, hugely popular novel that has inspired a manga series and two hit live action movies in Japan. But once I put all of these preconceived prejudices aside, I really enjoyed the book.

It follows Katniss-kudos for the cool name-who steps in her sister Prim's place when she is chosen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a battle to the death that only one person can walk away from (the part that shouted Battle Royale). It's the classic man vs. man. vs nature battle with a twist. Katniss was likable, though she did infuriate me at times-hello treating cutie Peeta like a prop-but over all it was a like. The only complaints I had was that the back of the book made it sound like cannibalism is a vital part of the plot and it is not. Not that I'm just this overbearing fan of people eating-unless of course they are of the one eyed, one horned,flying, and purple variety-but I thought this was going to be an a real issue in the book, it being called Hunger Games and all, but it really wasn't. But it wasn't too violent-I see worse in Halo commercials-and you really start to feel for Katniss. And I eagerly await the sequel Catching Fire to come out in September, so I'm going to give this a Face Out.

Well, I must get back to watching What I Like About You doing my forgotten homework. Valentine's Day shall be coming up soon, but I've come to realization that no guy can love me as much as I can love myself and will be spending my evening writing. Lol. It is the one love of my life.

Until next time,
Smooches,
Casey

Seoul I miss you so...

Well, I got my response from Maya Rock and that would be no. So after the prerequisite eating of lots of chocolate, listening to Beyonce's B-day album on repeat, and grumbling about if this whole publishing thing is really for me, I got over it, grew a pair, and decided that she was right and one day I shall find the right agent. For now, it's back to the grind. And ice cream. And lots of Gossip Girl. (Dan's hooking up with the teacher le gasp SO saw that one coming...)


And back to lots of reading as well because you can't learn the craft if you don't know the craft. I work at a major chain bookstore so I'm around books all day and have the privilege of seeing what comes out, what sells, and what stays on the shelf for months on end and won't move no matter how much we try to push it. One such example, unfortunately, I saw today. We received The Envy, book three of Anna Godbersen's The Luxe The concept of the story was pretty cool; Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty meets Gossip Girl, but so far the results of such a merger have been pretty meager. I picked up the book and couldn't get into it and all attempts at hand selling it haven't gone over well either. I'm not the only one who apparently thinks so. We have this term at the store called RPL for books that aren't selling well that we have to ship back to the publisher and I have a feeling that this might end up on that list at the end of the year.


On the other hand, I am currently reading Life As We Knew It by Pfeffer. I'd seen more than a few kids coming in to pick it up, so I think it was used as a school title, but so far it's pretty good. Unique concept and a character who is pretty endearing. A little nonchalant at times but what teen isn't? In the store we have a term called a Face Out for books that are selling well that we showcase in the section. I'm going to give this one my Face Out of the week.

Well, time for eating more ice creamdoing homework.
Yawn,laters
Casey

Well I'm going to give this blog thing another go under my new account.

I'm Casey. I'm a writer-hopefully one day a published one-and that's about all I've been doing lately. I'm a senior at the University of Tulsa and completely my first full length novel in 2005 while crammed into my dorm room. It's my last year and I've finally completed me second (Calling You: Sealed) and am started on my third(Calling You: Joined). Calling you is a series that I am working on/have been obsessed with writing. It centers around a girl name Samantha Grace who's adopted and finds out that she isn't normal, in any sense of the word. And if she doesn't screw things up too much, she could get something that most people would kill for: power, love, and eternal youth. Unfortunately, it seems like the person that most people would for it, is her.

It's a very complex story but I have plenty of time to write it this semester as it is my last and my school schedule consists of Ballet, Improv, Communications, Studio Art, European film and Independent Study. And my hours have been cut at work. But I'm not complaining. I like time to breathe. Unfortunately it also means that I have plenty of time to be at home and check my email. Which I have a lot of temptation to do because I sent out a few queries for Calling You: Sealed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, especially for an agent at Writer's House named Maya Rock. I've heard that she replies quickly, I just hope that I'll get a partial or full request! It's a step in the direction I'm hoping to go. Maybe one day I'll see my dream actualizated and I can walk into the NY public library and sign their copy of my book like in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Lol.

But thankfully my only difficult-ish class is Small Group Communication. But it's cool. And I found out that Kristin Cast, co-author of the YA series House of Night is in my class. I recently read the series and I must say it's rather good. And it's set in Tulsa so there are landmarks and locations I'm familiar with, which is a lot of fun. I'm starting to think that Oklahoma is the state to write paranormal literature in though. But anyways, you should check it out. House of Night, not Oklahoma...unless you want to see Oklahoma, in which case go ahead but you won't mind much. Except erratic weather.

Ja,
Casey

P.S. Meg Cabot is great. Been reading her blog for years. Maybe one day her blog writing prowess will seep into me. Today is her birthday so Happy B-day to her!!!! And Happy SuperBowl Sunday too...(yea...I don't even know who's playing.)

P.P.S. Been working on getting my writing playlist together for Joined. It's a little darker on one end and near lighthearted on the other than Sealed was so the whole thing is like a roller coaster. I'll be uploading the playlists to my iPod as soon as it stops acting like an idget....

Playlist for Sealed:

Evanesence-Bring Me to Life

The Pierces-Three Wishes

Aqualung-Strange and Beautiful

Britney Spears-Unusual You

Incubus-Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity)

The Veronicas-I Can’t Stay Away

Ryan Cabrera-True

Paramore-Born For This

Muse-Blackout

Jagster-I’m Leavin

Evanesence-Good Enough

Sara Bareilles-Gravity

Leona Lewis-Misses Glass

Origa-Inner Universe

The Pillows-Ride on Shooting Star

Jason Mraz-I’m Yours

All-American Rejects-Gives You Hell

Journey-Don’t Stop Believin’

Marie Digby-Miss Invisible

David Archuleta-Crush

The Veronicas-Mouth Shut